


He Had It Coming

by santa_gay



Category: Chicago - Kander & Ebb & Fosse, Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-05
Updated: 2018-02-05
Packaged: 2019-03-14 07:02:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13584804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/santa_gay/pseuds/santa_gay
Summary: Velma Kelly reflects on her life and her brother.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Velma Kelly and Jack Kelly have one very specific thing in common- a last name. I checked the timelines and it all worked out, so here’s the fic you never knew you needed

  Velma Kelly was not one for sentimentals. No, she figured it was best to just take what life has to throw at you. You know, seize the day. Of course, there had always been one exception to her “no emotions” rule. She looked down at the old picture she always carried on her, the crumpled, worn edges faded from years passed. One the paper, two grinning children looked up at her. A boy with messy hair and a smile that even now, still warmed Velma’s heart, and under the boy’s arm, a young girl with short, neat bob and a dress big enough to drown in. Both of the children were covered in dirt and grime, and the boy had was standing just in front of the girl, as if to shield her. The girl clutched the boy’s hand like a lifeline, like he was the only thing keeping her afloat in the storm of life. Granted, Velma recalled, that’s how it usually was.

New York City, 1893

 “Jaaaaack! Please! I want you to play with me! Not go out and work like some silly adult!” 9 year old Velma grabbed the legs of her older brother, trying to get him to stop, to reconsider leaving the house and leaving her all by herself. It was dreadful, the days no one was home, the days she didn’t have her brother to make up silly games, imagining stories and painting her little pictures. Those were the days she had to listen to her mother coughing in the next room, coughing until blood spattered her handkerchief and she could only softly cry for more water. Velma never knew what to do then. Blinking up at her brother, her dress ballooning out around his feet, she whimpered in a vain attempt to get him to stay. 

“Uh uh uh, Vel. C’mon. Stand up, sweetie.” Jack pried her fingers off his leg and took a few steps back, clearly ready to bolt out the door. “Velma, you gotta let me go! I’m e-lev-en now, so that’s practically grown. I get to be a workin man!” He snapped his suspenders, pride bursting out of him. ‘Sides, don’t you want some sweet candy with the pennies I bring back? I won’t get you any if you don’t let me gooooo.”  At that tempting offer, Velma nodded happily, flashing Jack a wide grin, and sitting back to let him leave. He snatched up his new cap, jamming it on top of his unruly hair, and as he slid out the door of their tenement building, blew Velma a kiss. She watched him walk off with a swagger quite unlike any other 11-year-old she knew, and decided in that moment that yes indeed, her brother was very special.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Life hits the Kelly family. Hard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eyyy thanks for reading! Let me know if you like it or things I can work on.

New York, January 23rd, 1894, 9:12 pm. 

Velma curled in on herself, feeling the cold of the floor and the only slightly warmer body of Jack around her. Feeble sobs wracked her body, and her dress was quickly becoming soaked through with Jack's tears. She couldn't pretend she hadn't seen it coming, but at barely 10 years old, no one expects to loose the only parent they have left. Her mother's body was still in the room, glassy-eyed, lifeless, empty. The two siblings clung to each other, trying to find comfort in the only person left who mattered. After a few minutes more, Velma got a shaky hold of her tears, and turned to her brother. There, sitting between his legs, encapsulated and warmed by him and him by her, she felt safe. No matter who else left, they would have each other. 

"Jack?" She asked.

"Yeah Vel?"

"What do we do with momma's body?" 

At this, Jack looked pensive. Though he'd never admit it to his little sister, he was just as scared and unsure. After a moment of contemplative silence, he slowly gave an answer. 

"Well... the man at the grocery store... when I was little he told said that if we's ever needed help we was to ask him." Detirmined to be the strong, tough brother, Jack pushed himself off the floor, fiercely wiped the tearstains off his cheeks, and dusted off his hands.

"I'm gonna get 'im. I'll be back before you can blink. You stand guard here, okay Velma? Can you do that for me?" Velma grabbed her knees, retreating further into herself now that her brother wasn't sitting around her as protection. At his request, she peered out from a crack between her knees.

"Huh Vel? I know you're brave. You can do this." Jack absentmindedly reached down and started twisting Velma's hair, as he tried to relieve his nerves. Vel didn't move. 

"Vel. Please. I can't do this alone. You gotta guard the house and I'll be back with help as soon as I can." Jack was practically pleading now, his ruse of the tough kid falling apart. Velma unfolded from her ball at that. Was that... uncertainty she heard in Jack's voice? If it was a big enough deal to make her ever-strong brother afraid, then it mattered. She had to be on guard. Nodding furiously, she stood up and dragged over a wooden chair to block the door." 

"I won't move until you're back" she declared. "I promise." At this proclamation, Jack let out a weak chuckle. "Well then, guess I'll have to leave another way." Grabbing up his newsies cap, now broken in and dusty, from the corner, he hoisted himself up onto the open gape of a pane-less window, and dropped down to the fire escape below. Popping his head up once more, he gave a cheery wave and walked away, both siblings trying to hide the pit of fear settling in their stomachs. 

New York, January 24th, 1894, 12:46 am. 

Velma had said she wasnt going to move, and she kept her word. The chair hadn't shifted an inch since Jack had left, as time went on and minutes turned to hours turned to too long to be alone. It was getting harder and harder to ignore her thoughts and fears, and the fact that her mother's dead body was on the bed did not help matters. The bitter night air from the window stung her nose and cheeks, but she would not get a blanket. She kept promises. And so so did Jack. He said he'd be back soon, and she said she wouldn't move. If she upheld her half of the deal, he'd have to uphold his. After what felt like another three days (12:52 am), and after recounting all the things she should be doing right now (one: sleeping), she heard the rumble of voices from the front door. Jack must be back! And the deeper voices must be the grocery store owner and maybe a friend of his? As the voices got closer, she heard the distinctive Italian accent of the grocer, and could make out words. 

"Thank you for your assistance, Snyder. The nerve of that kid, showing up begging for help after I caught him stealing not a week ago!" A deep New York accent replied. "Those poor children, raised with no morals. He needs guidance. You did the right thing, calling me in. A bit of time in the Refuge will do him good. Besides, we can't have poor little motherless boys alone on the street, can we?" At this, Velma's blood ran cold. She didn't know much about this "Refuge" the man mentioned, but she'd heard of it a few times. Always in whispers through her friends, cloaked in fear and suspicion. It was a school, some said. No, it was a jail. No, it was a graveyard, where little kids were murdered and left to be forgotten. Regardles of the details, everyone agreed on one thing: the Refuge meant bad news. Velma gripped the edges of the chair, trying to listen to the two voices getting closer. Only two voices. Where was Jack? As the realization that her brother wasn't with them hit her, she panicked. Jack wasn't here, which meant that he broke his promise, which means she could break hers too. As the voices reached the door, she heard "there's a little brat at home, we'll pick her up and you can do with her as you wish." Velma might have been young, but she knew bad news when she heard it. Bolting up from her chair, she dashed for the window, leaving everything behind, focused on only one thing. Running. Following the moments of Jack not 4 hours before, she pulled herself out of the window and scampered down the fire escape, taking off into the night. The two men opened the door to find a room empty but for a corpse and an overturned chair. By the time they remembered Velma, she was gone, and wasn't coming back.


End file.
